Thoroughly enjoyed reading your tale. I'm glad you enjoyed Australia. We Australians,
although most of us don't know any better, tend to think of ourselves as 'the lucky
country'. There was one technical fault with your diary: the picture of Brisbane was
actually a picture of Melbourne. I hope you go on another trip soon so I can read about
that one too.

Michael Brideson

[ Oops! I just KNEW that was going to happen somewhere in the journal! :-) I've
changed it to the real Brisbane picture. Thanks! -Russell ]

Nice trip, great pictures. I'd definitely like to visit Sydney and Australia now! What
you say about Amsterdam is a little predictable (well, I lived there most of my life) and
you seem to underestimate Brussels (top Jugendstil sites, best food of Europe).

Incidentally, Norelco IS Philips and Amstel Beer is the same company as Heineken. Lots
of luck in Africa.

Jan Koster

I really like the concept behind your site, and I definitely will tell others about it.
A friend of mine is about to do exactly what you did. And, I love it when people share
their stories - it's such a fundamental tenet of our culture etc. etc. (we've heard all
that stuff before, I know). However, something in your journal kind of rubbed me the wrong
way and I'd like to point it out to you. On your rant about American Tourists in Venice,
etc., you emphatically said something about no other country having the high standard of
living the U.S. does. Ah hem, pardon me, how about Canada? Actually, on a per capita
basis, Canada has less poverty than America does. So come on, don't be so short-sighted.
Just look a little farther north. There is a huge country (yes, even bigger than yours)
between the U.S. and the North Pole.

Leslie Elliott

I'm not sure if I'm really happy or really unhappy to have come across your page... I
spent 13 months doing a trip much like yours (though I went in the opposite direction), at
the same time as you were traveling; in fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if our paths
crossed in Thailand (I'll have to go back to my journal, and see what the exact dates
were). Ever since my trip, I've had a hard time walking past the travel section in
bookstores, and I still can't bring myself to read my journal - I have the travel bug, and
there's no hope for a cure. I went back to Europe for 2 months this summer, but it wasn't
the same; there's nothing quite like making the road your home.

My only factual quibble with your journal is that, so far at the Thai people are
concerned, their beaches are NOT topless! They are actually offended by the foreigners who
disregard their culture, and go topless. It is understandable that you would think that
these beaches are topless (since everyone there has no top), but this is really a matter
of tourists (principly Germans) imposing their culture on the area.

I also thought it was interesting that you thought that Americans were the rudest
tourists. I found the Germans to be much less interested in adapting to the local customs,
and to be much less worried about offending the locals. This is most noticable in places
like Africa or Asia, but I found it to be true in Europe, as well. Maybe we just had
different encounters...

Thanks for the bitter-sweet travel reminder, and for a way for me to share a little bit
of what travel is like with my friends (who have all grown sick of hearing my stories :-)
).

Eric Johnson

Well thanks, now I really have the urge to go travelling again and it's only Monday
afternoon! I did enjoy reading your experiences even though I was frustrated at times
because you have such different priorities from mine - you say near the beginning that you
were glad to get back to big cities (Australia?) I don't care if I ever see another big
city. If you write some sort of book (get help) forget the pronunciation guides - some of
them were quite wrong too, Interlaken is pronounced Inter-larken not locken and Berne is
like Bairn not burn - you gave the typical English pronunciations. Dublin is certainly not
part of the UK and the IRA wasn't formed in 1969 - it was part of the 1916 uprising.
Still, it's good to fire the imagination, I'm thinking of a 6 month tour of the USA next
year to see the parts I haven't got to yet, in case you wonder I'm English and have seen a
fair amount of Europe though none of Oceania or Asia. You mention that you may have staved
off a mid-life crisis, I don't believe that - you have set yourself up for a lifetime of
knowing that there is so much more of the world you could experience.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your trip, I hope you get to go to all the places you
missed.